“Moana 2” Shatters Box Office in Record Breaking $221M Weekend

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Moana 2 shattered box office records thanks to an estimated $221m five-day North American debut that combined with the ongoing heroics of “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” to deliver the all-time biggest Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

The top three movies at the box office claimed 75% of all showtimes in the United States, showcasing the tremendous demand garnered by that trio of titles. Overall, box office set a new record for the highest-earning 3-day Thanksgiving weekend, combining to $271M to easily surpass 2018’s $216M total.

‘Moana 2,’ which was originally conceived as a straight-to-Disney + release, earned $57.7M on Wednesday November 27, $28M on Thanksgiving day Thursday, $54.5 M on Friday, $50.5M on Saturday, and $30.5M on Sunday. The Friday-Saturday three-day bow delivered $135.5M.

The highly anticipated animated adventure starring the voices of Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Jonson broke the previous record five-day record set by The Super Mario Bros. Movie over Easter weekend 2023 and the former Thanksgiving set by 2019’s Frozen 2, with Box Office Mojo reporting the film hauled in $221M domestically over the five-day weekend.

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“Moana 2 has far surpassed our high expectations this weekend and is a testament to the phenomenon that Moana has become.” Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman said in a statement release Sunday.

“We’re fortunate to have an incredibly talented and hard-working creative team at Disney Animation who brought this new adventure to life, alongside our wonderful stars Auli’i and Dwayne and great new music,” he said.

Moana 2 played in 4,200 locations and according to ComScore’s PostTrak polling drew a diverse audience in North America that broke down as follows: Caucasian (35%), Hispanic (25%), African America (19%), Asian (12%), and Native American/Other (8%).

Wicked ended up dropping to second place, but the two-hour and 40-minute musical based on the Tony winning Broadway show continues to fill theaters. It also broke a few records of its own, becoming the most successful adaptation of a Broadway musical in history, breaking the previous total from 1978’s Grease.

Gladiator II, starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, and Denzel Washington battled it out to land in third place, earning some $44 million for the five-day period. Fourth place went to Red One, starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans. The holiday adventure made nearly $12.9 million over the three-day weekend and with an added $5.822M from Wednesday and Thursday ticket sales for a five-day stocking filled with $18.322M.